make your own gratitude branch

Hello friends!  Thanksgiving is just two days away.  Are you ready?  We are staying home for the holiday.  It'll just be our little family around the dinner table this year.  I am cooking our Thanksgiving meal and the Mr. has eagerly agreed to help.  It's going to be delicious.  A piece of my heart is missing my family this holiday season but being far away and on our own gives us a chance to establish our own traditions.  This year, we had a little Family Home Evening that focused on gratitude.  We each took a turn sharing something we are especially grateful for and why.  Then we wrote that one special thing on a cutout of a feather (you can google free feather printables).  One of my kids obviously likes to do fun things outdoors ;)   We strung our feathers up with bakers twine and placed them on a branch I found in our backyard.  The branch sits on the wall over our table, reminding us of all that is good and dear to us.   Afterward, we watched this video.  (This video is good too.)




It's easy to make your own gratitude branch.  You can find other cute ideas here and here.

So what am I grateful for?  Motherhood.  My children mean everything to me and I love them dearly.  I miss them the minute they walk out the door in the morning to go to school and my heart is happy the second they walk in the door after long days in the classroom.  They teach me to be patient, kind and to laugh even when I'm mad.  Being a mom is my chosen career.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

What are you grateful for?

the weekend

This past weekend was the weekend of festivals all over the state.  A friend of mine invited to me go to the Fall Fiber Festival with her.  It was located just across the road from James Madison's Montpelier home and the landscape was absolutely perfect for this event.  When we arrived, sheepdog trials were underway and memories of the movie Babe came rushing back.  It was kind of a magical moment for me.

Large tents set up in rows housed vendor after vendor, selling their hand spun yarns and hand dyed wool.  With over fifty vendors, there was a lot of fiber to choose from.  I browsed each vendor and kept mental notes of each vendor I planned to purchase from.  I brought home hand dyed roving which I plan to make goodies with to sell in my soon-to-be opened etsy shop.  Artists entered their work to be judged and I so wanted to take the fox pillow home with me.




The llamas were entertaining and I was surprised to feel how soft their coat of fur is.  My friend wants to sell her two sheep and buy llamas.  It makes my heart yearn for a home on acreage so I can raise my animals.

We finished our day with a hot apple cider donut.  Holy cow.  It's the best donut I've ever had - hot, thick and perfectly flavored.  I am craving more and plan to get some at the pumpkin patch this weekend.



This weekend was also a special one for my family.  Hailey got her patriarchal blessing and I was so touched by the things the patriarch had to say.  She is a special girl.  We also got to enjoy General Conference, hearing the leaders of the church speak.  I've had things weighing on my heart as of late and things were said that put it at ease.  It was like some of the words spoken were meant just for me.  I love it when that happens.

time out for women

Every woman has a spark.  Something that makes her extra special.  Something that makes her amazing.  All women are amazing.   I believe this wholeheartedly.  But after 16 years of doing the dishes, laundry, making meals, tying shoes and packing lunches, I was having a hard time figuring out exactly what my spark is.  One day would slip into another and before I knew it I had forgotten completely about myself and stopped trying to figure out exactly what my spark is.  I had been completely immersed in making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheering on my athletic offspring at soccer games that my spark was put on the back burner.  And I am okay with that.  I think that makes me a good mother.  I am completely dedicated to raising my children and I am more than happy with the people they are growing up to be.  My home is somewhat clean and organized.  My children are happy.  The Mr. & I have a great marriage and we are more in love than ever.  All of these things take work.

There is definitely a time and season for all things.

But the kids are all in school now.   I had always pictured (in the back of my mind) what I would do with that block of time when they are out of the house and I had it all to myself.  But crafting all day long wasn't what happened.  There are still dishes to do and laundry to wash and fold.  Meals still need to be made and bills must be payed.  There was no free time.  

I was having a hard time finding my spark.  I needed to make time for myself.  It's been a learning process and I am slowly making my daydreams become reality.  But I needed a push in the right direction - a spiritual boost.  Luckily, Time Out For Women was holding an event in Richmond and I knew I needed to go.  It was amazing and filled my spiritual well.  I even found my spark!  Something clicked inside me and it was the best feeling ever.

The theme for this year's tour is "Higher".   Amazing speakers filled the weekend with stories of love, loss, faith and reaching higher.  But there was one particular speaker, John Hilton III, that really touched my heart.  He spoke about realizing one's full potential - that I don't have to do what everyone else is doing, that I need to tap into the vision of what God has planned for me, that the mundane can be miraculous.  I knew that I needed to be actively doing things that would make me happy and fulfill the dreams I've had dancing in my head for years.  Now is the time for me to reach higher.

My friends and I had the most amazing time.  Fourteen hundred women were in attendance with 400 of them being from other faiths.  I highly recommend Time Out For Women.  Is it coming to your area?  You really need to go!

summer vacation//part 1//the beach

We squeezed our first and only vacation into the very last week of summer.  Nana & Grandpa flew out from Arizona and rented a cabin at First Landing State Park for the week.   We spent two whole days at the beach and if my heart had its way, I would still be there.  It was hard to leave.  The kids had free reign and it was good to see them play for hours together without a snippet of an argument.  It was a little piece of heaven.



The beach there did not disappoint.  It was more secluded than Virginia Beach, which was a plus for me since I haven't been to a beach at all since high school (hello white legs!).  The waves were tiny - perfect for my littles to play carefree in the water all day long.  They only came out for lunch and sunscreen reapplications.



Wildlife was all around us.  The Mr. caught a live jellyfish for us to ooh & ahh over before freeing it back into the water.  Pelicans played it cool perched on top of the posts of an old pier.  Dolphins bobbed up and down, making an appearance just as the sun set on our last day there.  It's somewhat breathtaking to see all the beauty God has created.  I felt lucky to be able to enjoy it.



Just after the sun set, I grabbed the kids to take a couple of final shots.  They didn't seem to mind it when I told them all to hold hands and throw them up in the air.  I must have asked them to do sillier things in public before.



By the end of our trip we were tired, sunburned and recharged for the upcoming school year. It was just the trip our little family needed.  We are hooked on this little piece of paradise and will be keeping this place in our plans when summer rolls around next year.

So I wanna know, what was your favorite vacation spot this summer?

sunday style//houndstooth

When I was a little girl, my grandpa would let me wear one of his hats.  It was made of thick, sturdy material but showed the softness of years of wear.  And it had a houndstooth pattern.  My grandma filmed my older sister and I sitting on her back porch eating big bites of bananas - and I was wearing that hat.  I loved houndstooth then and it's one of my favorite patterns to this day.



Today I wore my favorite dress.  It's covered in a houndstooth print and I got it for a steal of a deal at Target after stalking it on the sale rack.  I paired it with my favorite black sweater (that I probably wear too much), a skinny black belt & a chunky black necklace.

Dress/shoes/necklace: Target   

Sweater: Old Navy

Find other cute houndstooth outfits HERE & HERE.

What's your favorite pattern?

a date with my daughter

Carving out one-on-one time with your kids can be hard.  We have four so I figure it takes four times the effort to make this special time happen.  Sometimes I can convince one of my kids to go grocery shopping with me and I tend to count that as our one-on-one time together.  I let them push the cart (most of the time) and cross items off our shopping list as they go into the cart.  I realize that grocery shopping doesn't make the mark when it comes to having a good time though.  Heck, I dread doing it.  So I obviously need to kick it up a notch on the fun scale.

Deciding which child to take out first was a decision that was pretty much made for me.  It just so happened that a few Fridays ago the boys were invited to play at a friend's house and Hailey was at Girl's Camp for church.  Tatum was the only kiddo left.  She was missing her sister and getting annoyed with the boys so I quickly planned some fun things for the two of us to do together.  We started our day with painting our nails all matchy matchy.  Tatum picked out Big Money for our toes and Minted for our fingers.   Of course we needed to let our nails dry so I let her pick out a girly movie on netflix to watch and pass the time.  

Once our nails were dry, we headed to JoAnn's and pick out fabric for curtains for her room.   Tatum wasn't too thrilled about that but didn't seem to mind after I told her we were walking over to Sweet Frog next.  It's frozen yogurt heaven.  There are several frozen yogurt flavors to choose from and more toppings than you could ever fit into your cup.  I like the no sugar added vanilla with fresh strawberries, brownie chunks, chocolate shavings & nutella topping.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  

After stuffing ourselves, we walked to Michaels to pick up a few things.  Then we went home, watched another movie and our day together was done.  It was so much fun to have a little girl time.  I am so blessed to be Tatum's mom.  I will always cherish this time we had together and can't wait to make more memories with her again soon.

Do you take your kids on dates?  What's your favorite thing to do together?

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was completely wonderful.  And I can say that because I have 15 of them under my belt and most never met my expectations.  I selfishly used to think that this special day was all about me and that I deserved a nice breakfast in bed and should be showered with gifts and handmade crafts the kids would make at school.  I didn't want to lift a finger and I wanted this day to be all about me.  Me, me, me.  I mean really, didn't anyone know just how much I went through to have four kids???  And I would get really down by the end of the day because I wasn't as spoiled as I wanted to be.

I was purely selfish.  I know it.  And I am not proud of it.

My focus shifted this year.  After coming home from church, I changed out of my dress and plopped onto the couch.  I looked around and happiness filled my heart.   My children were laughing and carrying on and I was happy that they get along so well.  They are gifts from heaven and I am deeply grateful that Heavenly Father trusts me enough to be their mother.   It's very humbling.  My sweet husband showered me with love and that is way better than any gift, although he did have a few surprises for me throughout the day.  I reflected on the state of our little brick rental home and it was a bit of a mess.  But I didn't care because it meant that our home is lived in and well loved.  I felt such a connection to all of these things.  I felt fulfilled.

We all worked together to tidy up so that the missionaries from our ward (church) could skype with their moms that evening.  It's the one day of the year, out of the whole 2 years they are away from home, that they get to talk to their mothers.  It was so impressed with the amount of love and gratitude these two 18 year old boys have for their mothers.  It made me realize that my time with my children is so precious.  Before I know it, they will be out in the world making their own choices.  So for now, I am holding on to them as tight as I can.

Amongst all the happenings of the day, I got out my tripod and we snapped some family photos just before the kids got distracted by a bunny in our neighbor's yard.  Noah was not really into it, but we managed to get a few good ones.

I hope that your Mother's Day was extra special this year.

general conference//quiet basket

Hello friends.  It's a special weekend.  Our family will be gathered around our tv to watch the president and prophet of our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), Thomas S. Monson, speak.  His counselors and other leaders will be speaking as well.  And I can't wait.  It seems I need to be uplifted, enlightened and directed every time General Conference rolls around.  I usually don't get too religious on my blog, but religion is a very big part of my life.  What I believe makes me who I am and I try to live my religion the best that I can every day.   I am not claiming to be perfect.  I am human, after all.  I've had to deal with a lot of hard things in my life, but all things have been bearable because I have religion in my life.

Conference weekend is great, but it can be a challenge to listen to every single talk if you've got 4 kids who don't know how to sit still for all four of the two hour sessions.  That's a lot of sitting and listening and my kids just don't last that long.  In an effort to help them do quiet things while we all camp out in our living room, I put together a little basket with activities the kids can do quietly.



I got the basket at Dollar Tree, along with 3 notepads for drawing and 2 boxes of candy for a game of bingo.  I already had a new box of crayons (left over from school supply shopping) that can be used to draw in their notepads.  I grabbed some of the boys' legos and they will be challenged to build a temple or church building with them - all while being quiet and listening, of course ;)  I also printed up some activity sheets, a bingo game, and some prophet & apostle cards the kids can use to play a memory game with.



I scoured the internet and pinterest for ideas.  Here is what I ended up putting in our quiet basket:

Conference coloring pages: HERE & HERE
small notepads and a box of crayons for drawing
build a temple/church out of legos
Apostle/prophet BINGO (w/candy): HERE
Apostle/prophet matching game: HERE

I hope this will keep them quiet enough to play and listen at the same time.  We'll see!

lately

It's late Wednesday evening.  The kids are all finally in bed and I'm sneaking in some blog/netflix time before the Mr. gets home from playing basketball with friends.  I cherish this time to myself - to decompress from the craziness of the day.  It's been a long, but very fulfilling couple of weeks here in the Buis home.  Soccer season began for the boys and they are happy to be playing for the same coaches they had in the fall season.  Hailey's violin playing has gone up a notch and she is really turning into quite the player.  Although getting her to practice is not always easy, she seems to enjoy it once her bow hits those strings.  Tatum is the same fiesty girl she always is.  Last week's challenge was spelling words.  Oh how she hates studying spelling words.  It was certainly a sore spot in our home last week.  I am hoping this week will be leaps and bounds better.  Also, it's March Madness time.  The Mr. is like a kid in a candy store this time of year.



We got hit with one final winter storm over the weekend.  I know so many people don't like the snow, but this is our little family's first real winter and I can't get over how beautiful it is.  Everything is quiet and for a moment life seems to stand still.  The kids appreciate every moment of it, building snowmen till their little fingers are freezing.  After a little hot chocolate, they are ready to cozy up under blankets in the living room to watch a movie.  Willy Wonka is their movie of choice as of late.



I've been so overwhelmed by the day to day that I haven't been up to blogging.  Sometimes it is good to take a break to clear my head.  But my mind never stops going and I have a long list of things to chat with you all about very soon.  And of course there are craft tutorials & more sunday style posts squished onto the list too.  In fact, I've declared the entire day tomorrow as a craft day.  I plan to leave the dishes in the sink & laundry in piles.  I'm craving crafting.  Spring is all about new beginnings and fresh ideas.  I have a feeling this spring is going to be amazing.  More like, I need it to be amazing.  I am going to make it amazing.   Period.  The end.  (That's what I say when I really mean what I say.)